A Referendum on Obama

One of my correspondents wrote

OK… it's time for Romney to start really defining who and what he is, and how different he would be in the White House. People still don't know much about him…

I don't agree.  The standard dictum on re-election races is that they are first and foremost referenda on the sitting president, not a choice between the two candidates.  Only when people decide the President doesn't deserve another term do they begin to consider the opponent, and then only to decide if he is acceptable.

Three New Swing State Polls Show Obama in Trouble

This morning RealClearPolitics.com reports three new swing state polls that show Obama and Romney tied or within two percentage points of tied among registered voters.  The polls show the two dead even in Iowa, Obama up one point in Colorado, and two in Nevada.

These three states are critical to Obama's re-election if Ohio and Florida go against him, and likely-voter polls there would probably show him down two to four percentage points in them.

Making Obama as Predictable as Reagan

Ronald Reagan was extraordinarily consistent to his principles.  One always knew what he would do before he announced his decisions.

In contrast, it has not always been easy to understand what Barack Obama would do in the foreign policy arena.  How to square US actions in Libya with those in Syria?  And in Morocco, and Egypt?

Obama v. Romney Among Likely & Registered Voters

The RealClearPolitics.com Obama v. Romney horse-race-question average stands at +1.6% for Obama this morning.

The methodology for the average should be, and probably is, to determine the number of those polled who favor each candidate by taking the percentage of the number sampled, and summing that over all the polls.  Those results are then divided by the total number sampled.  Nothing wrong with that approach.

David Brooks Explains Why Progressivism Must Fail

I'm sure David Brooks' editors at the local New York liberal paper* view him as the tame house conservative -- think Pomeranian or  tabby cat.  To keep his job, he seldom expresses an opinion with which a movement conservative could agree strongly.

Cornhuskers and Buckskin and Warpaint -- Oh My!

Lost in the glare of adoration for The Awesome One's appearance on The View is that Nebraska farmer and rancher Deb Fischer snuck through an opening between the establishment candidate Jon Bruning and the Club for Growth's choice Don Stenberg to win the Husker Republican Senate nomination last night.

Romney's Paths to Electoral College Victory

Many pundits have weighed in on the width of Romney's path to victory in the electoral college since the Republican became the presumptive nominee.

Progressivism Must Be Defeated!

Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute writes today in the WSJ that economic liberty is not just the most efficient way to manage an economy -- far better than five, or five hundred forty-five, or fifty-five thousand five hundred forty-five wise guys in rooms in Washington, DC -- because it allows everyone the opportunity for the greatest individual economic satisfaction of all: earned success.